A great amount of development activity has occurred to eliminate the labor intensive methods of wrapping a cloth fabric or trim cover about a contoured cellular foam pad for use in automotive seating applications.
One such development is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,199 to Kozlowski et al., issued Sep. 8, 1997 and assigned to the current assignee. This patent employs a method and apparatus for fabricating a cushion assembly wherein a fabric layer and air impervious adhesive film are placed over a mold surface. A vacuum is applied over the mold surface through the fabric layer to draw the adhesive film against the fabric layer and mold surface. A cellular foam pad is then placed against the adhesive film and compressed by an upper press platen and heated to defuse the adhesive film into the foam pad and fabric layer respectively.
The apparatus includes a single station including a mold presenting the mold surface having passages therein for establishing fluid communication with the mold surface and a vacuum for supplying vacuum pressure to the mold. The apparatus further includes a heating source for supplying heated fluid through the mold and a press platen moveable relative to the mold surface for compressing the foam pad against the mold surface with the fabric layer and adhesive film sandwiched therebetween.
However, these prior activities provide only a single apparatus and method for fabricating a single seat cushion or back cushion in any one method of operation. Thus, there remains the desire to provide a method and apparatus for fabricating and bonding a trim cover to a foam pad along a conveyer assembly line process including various stages in the process and equipment for fabricating seat assemblies in a continuous multi-stage process.